NEWSWIRE

PEI TO HOST ATLANTIC T20

The Atlantic T20 Cricket Tournament kicks off on Friday 1 August, 2014 in PEI at the Association’s grounds at Tea Hill Park, Stratford. The Cricket Canada sanctioned event, will see provincial teams from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and PEI competing against each other for regional cricketing supremacy.

Cricket has a distinguished history on Prince Edward Island, and was present at the founding of our country. On 1 September 1864, on the opening day of the Charlottetown Conference, 240 Nova Scotians crossed the Northumberland Straits to watch a match between a team from Pictou and the Charlottetown Cricket Club—the first organised sports club on the Island. With the Nova Scotians keen to avenge a humiliating home defeat at the hands of the Islanders just a week earlier, it was this match, played out on a field on St. Peter’s Road, that captured the attention of Island society on that most important of days. By all accounts, there was a very large crowd present at the match, including Lieutenant Governor George Dundas and his wife, and Charlottetown mayor, Thomas Haviland. After a tightly fought contest, the Island team, led by Dr. John T. Jenkins, and including such Island notables as James Peake Jr., Francis Longworth and Charles Hyndman, emerged victorious.

To commemorate this auspicious link (150 years) between the founding of Canada and Island cricket, the four-day Atlantic T20 tournament is being played this year on Prince Edward Island. Last year’s champions Nova Scotia will be looking to repeat their feat again this year.